Scenario: Grace has noticed that her third grade students are not doing very well with inference questions on bi-weekly reading assessments. Grace is talking to the other third grade teachers about the inference questions that the students are not understanding in her classroom. Tamra is also eating lunch in the lounge. She overhears the conversation and Tamra offers to collaborate on a lesson to help Grace's students understand inferencing in a more concrete way. Grace takes Tamra up on her offer to improve her students inferencing skills.
Brava! School librarians should always be on the lookout for opportunities to extend invitations. This is one great reason to eat in the teachers' lounge.
1. Why are we asking students to engage in this learning experience? Goals/Standards
There are several Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills that are specifically addressed in this lesson, as well as AASL standards. Students need this lifelong skill to become critical thinkers and discerning users of information. As they become advanced in reading, they will need make inferences in a variety of texts to determine what the author is saying "between the lines."
TEKS: 3.6-9 - Students are expected to understand, make inferences, and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of literary text (poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction) and provide evidence from text to support their understanding.
AASL Standard 1
1.1 Skills
1.1.2 Use prior and background knowledge as a context for new learning.
1.1.6 Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format (e.g., textual, visual, media, and digital) in order to make inferences and gather meaning.
Brava for your reasonable number of standards/indicators. What additional media can you use to address 1.1.6?
2. What do we want the students to learn? Performance Indicators/Learning Objectives
We want students to be able to make accurate inferences based on clues and then transfer that to making inferences using a wordless picture book. Students will examine the illustrations, make observations, and communicate inferences using a 3-column graphic organizer for "What I See," "What I Think," and "Why" (will refer to text evidence). After recording thoughts, students will be separated into two groups, one with the teacher and one with the librarian, to discuss their inferences in small groups. Students will use text evidence from the pictures to support their inferences.
Excellent strategy for maximizing the impact of two educators.
3. In what specific learning experiences do we want them to engage? Who will be responsible for each? Learning Tasks/Responsible Educator
*Students will first come into the library and sit at the tables in front of the projector screen. The librarian will tell the students that they are going to be detectives today.
*To begin, the librarian will give clues about a mystery object and play "20 Questions." Students may then ask "yes/no" questions to gather more information about the mystery object. Students are to use clues gained based on peer questions to infer what the object is. The clues to begin: It is a thing. It has no beginning, end, or middle. What am I? (Answer: donut)
*The teacher will then explain that just as we used clues to help identify the mystery object, we use clues when we read to try and figure out what the author is saying.
Are there resources you can use to introduce the idea of making inferences? See Chapter 6 in CS4TRC.
*Tamra will introduce the wordless picture book, The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney. Grace will introduce the 3-column "Thinking Chart" graphic organizer. Tamra will project the book onto the large screen using the document reader so that all students may see the illustrations better. Grace will use a "think-aloud" to demonstrate how to complete the graphic organizer. Grace will think-aloud and Tamra will record on the large chart paper version of the graphic organizer.
*We will continue through the book and students will record their thinking on their own graphic organizer. Both Grace and Tamra will guide students in making observations about the illustrations and recording responses.
Please review the A.4.2 Rubric in terms of resources. You will need to incorporate more than one text in your lesson plan/extension. What kind of text set can you create? Are there online resources to support this strategy?
4. How will they communicate what they learned? Learning Process/Products
*In small groups facilitated by the teacher and librarian, students will communicate the inferences they made for selected pages. Students will refer back to the illustration to support their inference. A copy of the text will be available for each group to look back at.
*Students will have a graphic organizer of their thinking as a work product.
*Technology is not the focus of this lesson.
5. How will they/we assess their learning? Assessment Criteria/Tool(s)
*Students will be assessed on the use of text evidence to support their inferences and accuracy in their inference making. (Completeness of graphic organizer)
*Students will be asked five multiple choice questions that make inferences from the text. Students will correctly identify at least 4/5 of the correct choices.
*Students will self assess their inferencing by filling out a self-assessment rubric.
*Assessment rubric for educator- Both the librarian and teacher can fill out the assessment rubric.
6. What resources will the students/we need?
*3-column "Thinking Chart" graphic organizer
*Document reader/projection screen
*2 Copies of text
*Multiple choice assessment
Brava for your detailed and thoughtful planning. With the addition of the actual graphic organizer and rubric, you are well on your way.
Brava! School librarians should always be on the lookout for opportunities to extend invitations. This is one great reason to eat in the teachers' lounge.
Collaborative Planning Form:
Supplement 1C―Collaborative Planning Sheet, Sample 3
There are several Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills that are specifically addressed in this lesson, as well as AASL standards. Students need this lifelong skill to become critical thinkers and discerning users of information. As they become advanced in reading, they will need make inferences in a variety of texts to determine what the author is saying "between the lines."
TEKS: 3.6-9 - Students are expected to understand, make inferences, and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of literary text (poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction) and provide evidence from text to support their understanding.
AASL Standard 1
1.1 Skills
1.1.2 Use prior and background knowledge as a context for new learning.
1.1.6 Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format (e.g., textual, visual, media, and digital) in order to make inferences and gather meaning.
Brava for your reasonable number of standards/indicators. What additional media can you use to address 1.1.6?
We want students to be able to make accurate inferences based on clues and then transfer that to making inferences using a wordless picture book. Students will examine the illustrations, make observations, and communicate inferences using a 3-column graphic organizer for "What I See," "What I Think," and "Why" (will refer to text evidence). After recording thoughts, students will be separated into two groups, one with the teacher and one with the librarian, to discuss their inferences in small groups. Students will use text evidence from the pictures to support their inferences.
Excellent strategy for maximizing the impact of two educators.
*Students will first come into the library and sit at the tables in front of the projector screen. The librarian will tell the students that they are going to be detectives today.
*To begin, the librarian will give clues about a mystery object and play "20 Questions." Students may then ask "yes/no" questions to gather more information about the mystery object. Students are to use clues gained based on peer questions to infer what the object is. The clues to begin: It is a thing. It has no beginning, end, or middle. What am I? (Answer: donut)
*The teacher will then explain that just as we used clues to help identify the mystery object, we use clues when we read to try and figure out what the author is saying.
Are there resources you can use to introduce the idea of making inferences? See Chapter 6 in CS4TRC.
*Tamra will introduce the wordless picture book, The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney. Grace will introduce the 3-column "Thinking Chart" graphic organizer. Tamra will project the book onto the large screen using the document reader so that all students may see the illustrations better. Grace will use a "think-aloud" to demonstrate how to complete the graphic organizer. Grace will think-aloud and Tamra will record on the large chart paper version of the graphic organizer.
*We will continue through the book and students will record their thinking on their own graphic organizer. Both Grace and Tamra will guide students in making observations about the illustrations and recording responses.
Please review the A.4.2 Rubric in terms of resources. You will need to incorporate more than one text in your lesson plan/extension. What kind of text set can you create? Are there online resources to support this strategy?
*In small groups facilitated by the teacher and librarian, students will communicate the inferences they made for selected pages. Students will refer back to the illustration to support their inference. A copy of the text will be available for each group to look back at.
*Students will have a graphic organizer of their thinking as a work product.
*Technology is not the focus of this lesson.
*Students will be assessed on the use of text evidence to support their inferences and accuracy in their inference making. (Completeness of graphic organizer)
*Students will be asked five multiple choice questions that make inferences from the text. Students will correctly identify at least 4/5 of the correct choices.
*Students will self assess their inferencing by filling out a self-assessment rubric.
*Assessment rubric for educator- Both the librarian and teacher can fill out the assessment rubric.
*3-column "Thinking Chart" graphic organizer
*Document reader/projection screen
*2 Copies of text
*Multiple choice assessment